Study On Excellence In Cities Programme In Britain

In the context of globalization, each country in pursuit of high quality education and weak schools' improvement and balanced development has made education one of the strategic plans. The British New Labour government of 1997 puts education in the particular status, its improvement policy to take other fields' development, so the government implements improvement policy to the weak schools. In March,1997, the British government launched "Excellence in Cities"(EiC) programme, which would initiate officially in September. This is the latest measure of improving weak schools of UK, attempting to change the unbalanced situation of educational development.This paper deeply explores the background of EiC programme; concludes the main content of the plan on the basis of mastering a great quantity of information; analyses and summarizes the implementation of the plan and achieved results; finally, this paper makes a thorough inquiry to draw lessons form the plan, which is appropriate for improving weak schools in China.The paper is divided into four parts:The first part mainly explores the background of EiC programme. Globalization makes many countries pursue the reform desire of improvement of balanced education. Blair government is carrying out the new idea-"the third way" and the current situation that the development of basic education is unbalanced has become the most direct reason why the weak schools need to be improved that is the reason why EiC is launched.The second part summarizes the main content of EiC. It includes EiC's central idea and action guidelines; its implement scope and relationships between cooperation partners. All that is stated in detail makes a whole mastery to EiC.The third part summarizes the implementation of EiC and its achievement, including its sub-programmes' specific circumstance and its achievements in students' performance, students' behaviour and schools' management. Apart from that, it selects five cities as case study.The fourth part elaborates some enlightenment from EiC to Chinese policy of improving weak schools:establish an effective defining standard for identifying weak schools; government should provide educational and managerial resources support; facilitate teaching professional development standard to improve the teaching construction of weak schools; and lay emphasis on cooperation in many ways to promote the reform and development of the weak schools in China.